Saints and Colts win through to the Superbowl

This year's Superbowl will be between the New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts after the teams won through in thrilling play-off games.

Four-and-a-half years after the city was destroyed by Cyclone Katrina, New Orleans will take part in America's biggest sporting event for the first time and it is sure to be an emotional occasion.

The Saints booked their Superbowl place thanks to an extraordinary overtime win at the Louisiana Superdome - the stadium that was at the centre of the relief effort in 2005.

The game against the Minnesota Vikings was tied at 28-28 in the final stages with the Vikings pushing into field goal range when their quarterback Brett Favre threw an interception, meaning that the Saints survived and the game went into overtime.

With the match now in sudden death New Orleans moved into field goal range themselves and kicker Garrett Hartley converted from 40-yards to send them into the Superbowl in Miami on February 7.

"This is for everybody in this city," said coach Sean Payton. "This stadium used to have holes in it and used to be wet. It's not wet anymore."

Saints quarterback Drew Brees added: "The city is on its way to recovery, and in a lot of ways has come back better than ever.
We've used the strength and resiliency of our fans to go out and play every Sunday and play with the confidence that we can do it, that we can achieve everything we've set out to achieve."

It the other game the Indianapolis Colts recovered from 17-6 to beat the New York Jets 30-17 to take the AFC title. Star of the show for the Colts was Haitian born receiver Pierre Garcon who caught 11 passes and made 151 yards - a record in the AFC title game. ·